Mental health problems often emerge during years of service

The military is one of the great stewards of American young adults. As of 2015, about 40% of the total military force — approximately 850,000 men and women — were 25 years of age or younger. In exchange for the risks they take, we expect the military to shepherd young people through the hazards of war and peace, including unforeseen mental illness.

Far too often, the military isn’t meeting this obligation to our troops. For civilians and veterans alike, mental illness is a common fact of life. Like any other illness, it doesn’t necessarily happen to everyone. But when it does happen, it’s often treatable. Even without trauma, the fact is that those relatively early years are frequently when many ailments emerge.

A large study conducted in 2001-2003 and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health revealed that three-quarters of surveyed psychiatric disorders began before age 24. As of 2015, in the United States, suicide was the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds.

Since four in 10 of our troops are under 25, one would expect the military to have exemplary treatment on call and an ingrained culture of awareness. But within the ranks, mental health problems are stigmatized, and resources are far too hard to get. Troops distrust mental health care and the professionals who, in some cases, can end their careers by using broad exceptions to privacy protections that civilians take for granted.

Malingering — faking an injury — is a crime, and false accusations of it can be used to shame and goad people back into formation.

The American public typically only sees the failures of the military mental health system when veterans return home. But the extreme case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is an object lesson in how the military can fail a young person living with mental illness.

Bergdahl was 23 years old when left his post. He believed his leadership was dangerous, and he wanted to help his fellow soldiers. Bergdahl devised a plan: He would disappear to draw attention, then reappear to report the officers he felt were unfit.

Instead, Bergdahl initiated a tragic chain of events that caused grave injuries to several service members and led to his multi-year imprisonment by the Taliban.

At the time, Bergdahl lived with undiagnosed schizotypal personality disorder — a condition that, like other mental illnesses, traditionally arises in late adolescence or early adulthood. Two years prior, he was discharged from the Coast Guard after 26 days for mental health issues. The Army — aware of that history — gave him a waiver to serve.

In Afghanistan, Sgt. Gregory S. Leatherman, who supervised Bergdahl, saw signs of mental illness and tried to assist him. In the proceedings that led to Bergdahl’s dishonorable discharge, Leatherman testified Bergdahl was a “great solider,” but, over time, not “adjusting to the deployment like the rest of the guys were.”

With courage, Leatherman told an intimidating senior sergeant that he thought that Bergdahl “should chat with somebody, you know, whether it be Combat Stress, or a chaplain.”

The senior sergeant told Leatherman to “shut the f--- up,” because “no one needs to hear what an f---ing E-5 (sergeant) has to say about a guy in my company.”

The aftermath of that conversation has become American history.

Leatherman testified that if Bergdahl, an infantryman, had tried to seek help, “as much as we hate to say it, it is going to be taken as a sign of weakness.”

Bergdahl isn’t an outlier. Throughout the military, systemic failure and crude stigma prevent service members from taking care of themselves and each other.

Clearly, mental health reforms need to be a priority for the Defense Department, Congress and the President. In the interim, every service member needs to become a Sgt. Leatherman.

Mental Health First Aid certification for all troops is a good place to start. It’s a basic, concrete way to help identify, understand and respond to signs of trouble. After a one-day course, I was certified, and I encourage others to do the same.

This Veterans Day, Yale University will both pay tribute to veterans and strengthen their community by sponsoring Mental Health First Aid training for staff, alumni, and students — including Air Force cadets and Navy midshipmen who will soon become commissioned officers. Other schools should follow suit.

We have a duty to be better stewards to all our young, especially those we send into harm’s way.

Cuthbert is a U.S. Army veteran and a member of the Yale Veterans Association.